How did the bitter waters turn sweet at Marah?

What was the tree that did it?

THE BOOK OF EXODUS IN THE BIBLE records that when
the Israelites camped at a place called Marah, in the
wilderness of Shur, they could not drink the water there
because it tasted bitter. Then God showed Moses a tree,
which when cast into the waters, turned the water sweet
and drinkable.

Skeptics have doubted that there are trees that can
purify water quickly this way. But one tree being used to
purify water today is Moringa oleifera. This
tree has been used successfully to cleanse turbid waters
from the River Nile and other areas. Could this be the
one referred to in the Bible?

After
Moses led the Israelites through the miraculous Red Sea
crossing, described in the Bible's book of Exodus
(15:25), they went into the wilderness of Shur — in
the north-west of the Sinai Peninsula.

The Israelites travelled for three days without finding
water. When they finally came to a place with water,
which they named Marah, they decided to camp there.

But they could not drink from the waters at Marah because
the taste was too bitter. They complained to Moses, who
asked God what they could drink.

Then God showed Moses a tree, “which when he had
cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet”.

What was this tree? Are there really trees that can turn
bad water into clean drinking water — trees that
will purify water quickly to make it drinkable?

Moringa oleifera

One of the most remarkably useful trees is one being
cultivated heavily for use in the Sudan. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said that
village women had successfully used the tree Moringa
oleifera (pictured at top) to cleanse the highly
turbid water of the River Nile. After trying other
moringa species in Egypt, Namibia, Somalia, and Kenya,
they too have shown properties that clarify water
quickly.

When moringa seeds
are crushed and poured into a pot or bottle of dirty
water, the water turns transparent within seconds. The
seeds' anti-bacterial properties can turn low,
medium, and high turbidity waters into tap-water quality
in an hour or two.

Studies on the effectiveness of moringa seeds for
treating water have been done since the 1970s, and have
consistently shown that moringa is especially effective
in removing suspended particles from water with medium to
high levels of turbidity (muddiness or dirtiness).

In water with high turbidity, a litre of water needs only
one of the horseradish-smelling seeds for effective
treatment. In low turbity, one seed may do 4 litres. When
the water is boiled, this increases its nutritional
effectiveness by making inactive a nutrition-inhibiting
protein (lectin).

Widely cultivated

The moringa tree today seems to be native only to the
southern foothills of the Himalayas, but it has been
grown wonderfully elsewhere in dry, sandy soil, and it
tolerates poor soil. It can grow to a height of about 10
metres.

Apart from Africa, moringa trees are being cultivated in
India, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia,
the Philippines, and elsewhere. We are now growing a few
Moringa trees around our Creation Tips office in
Australia, as we are situated in a semi-rural area and
rely mostly on tank water.

Above: Beautiful moringa flowers are used for
decoration and in health products.

Almost every part of
Moringa oleifera is useful. The leaves are
inexpensive and are used in soups, and with meat, chicken
and vegetable dishes. The leaves are somewhat like
spinach in both looks and nutritional value. Fresh leaves
have 4 times the calcium of milk, 7 times the vitamin C
in oranges, and 4 times the vitamin A in carrots. They
are used in tea, soup, and porridge.

Moringa's bark, roots, fruit, flowers, leaves, seeds
(photo at right) and gum are used as an antiseptic and in
medicines to treat rheumatism, bites and other ailments.
The seed pod has been used to desalinate sea water.

The bark and roots are used as a spice and in soap; seed
oil is used in cooking, machine lubrication, and
cosmetics; the wood is used for fences and firewood. The
flowers are also used in religious festivals, churches,
and to decorate houses. Powdered moringa is used in
cakes, fish feed, and cattle feed.

The Marah tree?

We cannot be
dogmatic in saying that the moringa was the tree the
Israelites used to purify the waters of Marah. The Bible
does not give us enough information about either the tree
or the water. (Marah means
“bitterness” by the way, which is why they
named that place Marah).

It is also not certain whether the miracle was in
God's revealing to Moses the type of tree that would
solve the problem, or in God's producing a one-off
miracle using a tree at the campsite. But the wording
that says “the Lord shewed him [Moses] a
tree” seems to be saying the solution was in a tree
that was already growing in the area.

In any case, we do know that the moringa has remarkable
properties — especially for rapidly purifying
undrinkable water. So if we want to know, “Is there
a tree that can quickly purify undrinkable water?”,
the answer is clearly Yes. “Can the tree grow in
that area?” Again the answer seems to be Yes.